Influence of Ion Bombardment on Residual Stresses in Diamond-Like Carbon Films

摘要

The dependence of internal residual stresses in thin diamond-like carbon films grown by thePECVD technique on the most important growth parameters such as the power of the exciting RF discharge andthe substrate bias potential is considered. The results have shown that the mechanical stresses in films reach theuppermost value of 1.9 GPa at the smallest values of power and potential. The stress decreases with the growthof both parameters and has only a slight dependence on the film thickness in the range 0.1-1 gm. The bombard-ment of the obtained films by argon ions with energy of 300 keV and phosphorus ions with energy of 200 keVhas resulted in the reduction of compressive stress with the ion dose growth down to its inversion. AFM studyof the bombarded films has revealed significant changes in their surface morphology.